Canadian Work Culture

Four people discussing in meeting room

The Cana­di­an work­force has been deduced to have a strong pace of growth, cor­po­rate effec­tive­ness, and excel­lent struc­ture. As a result, it is the most com­pet­i­tive work­force in North Amer­i­ca. Cana­da is also home to one of the world’s biggest tech hubs. And the coun­try attracts some of the best IT pro­fes­sion­als from around the world. This indus­try keeps expand­ing and recruit­ing, and Cana­da boasts a robust home­grown tech­nol­o­gy sec­tor with over 43,200 com­pa­nies mak­ing up its tech indus­try. Like every oth­er coun­try, Canada’s work­force has a set of atti­tudes, ideas, and behav­iors that make up its stan­dard work­ing atmos­phere — the work place cul­ture. It is per­ti­nent to under­stand what influ­ences your fit­ting into orga­ni­za­tions in Cana­da and dic­tates your capac­i­ty to form pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships with your col­leagues with­in the tech indus­try. This arti­cle will enlight­en you about the work­ing way of life in Canada.

Work Place Culture — Standards in the workplace

In Cana­da, for­eign work­ers or immi­grants are required to adhere to spe­cif­ic work­ing stan­dards to bet­ter inte­grate into their new envi­ron­ment. Com­pa­nies through­out Cana­da are work­ing to edu­cate one anoth­er regard­ing var­i­ous parts of inter­na­tion­al diver­si­ties to accept a vari­ety of peo­ple into their work­force (to bet­ter suit you and oth­er immi­grants). By learn­ing to com­pre­hend the spe­cif­ic con­di­tions, new­com­ers can pre­vent ambi­gu­i­ties and set them­selves on the jour­ney to pros­per­i­ty. Here are some work­place standards:

Punctuality

Punc­tu­al­i­ty is the soul of busi­ness. This work place cul­ture is one of the best ways to thrive any­where. Cana­di­an employ­ers val­ue punc­tu­al­i­ty, and indeed, the tech indus­try is no exception.

Courtesy

Cana­di­an orga­ni­za­tions are often laid-back. Peo­ple usu­al­ly address each oth­er by their first names. Excep­tions exist, though, for high-rank­ing offi­cials. Also, you should know too that some indi­vid­u­als would rather not make any phys­i­cal con­tact (respect per­son­al space), and oth­ers may greet with a firm hand­shake. Also, eye con­tact is anoth­er essen­tial aspect of inter­ac­tion in Cana­da too.

Respect

Every work­er treats each oth­er with dig­ni­ty. Employ­ers must respect their employ­ees’ dig­ni­ty, and employ­ees must reciprocate.

Teamwork

Your tech jour­ney may require work­ing in a team. So, be ready to offer assis­tance when you notice a cowork­er is stressed or slip­ping behind. In addi­tion, you must also try to pri­or­i­tize the team’s require­ments over your own.

Use of perfumes and colognes

It is sig­nif­i­cant to note that due to aller­gies and sen­si­tiv­i­ties, most work­places advise using cologne, per­fume, and oth­er scent­ed goods in mod­er­a­tion or not at all.

Dress code

The dress code may dif­fer depend­ing on the type of pro­fes­sion and employ­er. For the tech indus­try, dress­ing smart casu­al is just per­fect. You should remem­ber to ‘Keep It Clean.’

Standard operating procedures

It is essen­tial you strive to read and under­stand the stan­dard oper­at­ing pro­ce­dures of any tech indus­try you find your­self in. This is the stan­dard of standards.

Four unique elements of the work place culture in Canada 

  • The work­place cul­ture in Cana­da is sig­nif­i­cant­ly more egal­i­tar­i­an than that of many nations, which are far more hierarchical.
  • Although the Cana­di­an com­mu­ni­ca­tion style is gen­er­al­ly seen as forth­right, feed­back is not. When Cana­di­ans pro­vide unfa­vor­able feed­back, they do so positively.
  • Inter­per­son­al skills, com­mon­ly known as “soft skills,” are pri­or­i­tized over “hard skills.”
  • As sug­gest­ed in the first point, the Cana­di­an work­ing cul­ture is dif­fer­ent from many oth­er coun­tries. Be aware of cul­tur­al diversities.

Strategies for adjusting to the Canadian work place culture

People working in office

First­ly, set­ting goals is per­ti­nent for career progress. Goals assist you in con­cen­trat­ing your efforts. When you’re hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ties, they keep you moti­vat­ed. Set­ting career objec­tives entails decid­ing what you want to accom­plish in your cur­rent posi­tion. A fair objec­tive could be to work as a data sci­en­tist with­in one year. For instance, you would have to fig­ure out what tal­ents are need­ed or what qual­i­fi­ca­tions are need­ed, like Pow­er Bi certification.

Adap­ta­tion is cru­cial. Because Cana­da is such a diverse coun­try, iden­ti­fy­ing Cana­di­an work­place “norms” is often chal­leng­ing; they will vary depend­ing on who con­trols the com­pa­ny and the work­ers employed. Have an under­stand­ing of where you wish to work and how the dai­ly oper­a­tions are car­ried out there.

Also, you need to be pro­fi­cient in Eng­lish and/or French. This would require a lot of prac­tice if you are new to the language(s). Hon­ing the abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate in Eng­lish, espe­cial­ly at work, is nec­es­sary. This assists in blend­ing with the rest of your cowork­ers. Improve­ment in com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills is vital.

Some inter­per­son­al skills would need devel­op­ment (a con­tin­u­ous process). These skills include the poten­tial to func­tion as part of a team, flex­i­bil­i­ty and open­ness to new ideas, effec­tive man­age­ment of time, ini­ti­at­ing con­ver­sa­tions, and ask­ing questions.

Always be punc­tu­al. Regard­ing time­li­ness, orga­ni­za­tions in Cana­da have reg­u­la­tions that define what­ev­er is and is not accept­able. Know this, and you will find tran­quil­i­ty at work. At work, Cana­di­ans have a way of say­ing and doing things. Some­times, there is the famil­iar Cana­di­an joke. You would def­i­nite­ly get a lot of ‘ehs’. Also, Cana­di­ans joke about cit­i­zens’ good man­ners and kind ways.

In the Cana­di­an work place cul­ture, you must com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly, lis­ten, and asso­ciate with oth­ers; com­pre­hend oper­at­ing cus­toms sat­is­fac­to­ri­ly, and under­stand the wide range of cross vari­a­tions in the work­place culture.

Adjust­ing to the Cana­di­an work set­ting is often chal­leng­ing for immi­grants. Got ques­tions or com­ments? Con­tact us at Elite careers. We want to hear from you. 

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